We're Proud
by Akihito Kage
Summary: An accident while on his morotbike knocks Marik between life and death, and some unlikely people want to give him a message.


This idea has been spinning around my head for a while now, and I needed to get going on my fanfic100 prompts, and there was _Death_, so I wrote this XD

Enjoy!

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**We're Proud**

For once Marik hadn't sped through a red light. It had been green when he he crossed that intersection in the rain on his motorbike. The silver Ferrari had come speeding out of nowhere, running the red light the driver should've breaked at, and knocked Marik flying. It was lucky he had been wearing a helmet, another thing he didn't usually do but had done that day because of Malik's nagging, because otherwise his skull would've probably been completely smashed. It had practically cracked in two with the impact. He was also lucky the driver hadn't just sped off. She'd skidded on the road and had rushed to his aid, quickly calling the ambulance first then the number marked 'Home' on Marik's phone that was fifty yards away from his unconcious body.

Bakura had gotten there before the ambulances did, driving in Jounouchi's car who had been over visiting Ryou. He knelt down by Marik's bloody body, covering him with his leather trench coat to give some form of protection against the rain that was still falling. He didn't have the energy to send the woman to the shadows, or even yell at her for being so careless and stupid. He just felt completley numb at seeing his partner's body in such a state. His leg bent the wrong way, shoulder clearly dislocated, skin freezing cold in the icy winter rain. He found a pulse, and saw the blonde's chest rise and fall, so he had a small relief in the fact he was alive, but only a small one. He followed the ambulance in silence when they came to take him to the hospital, usually hating the quiet and having the radio on all the time.

Ryou came racing the hospital once he knew where they'd taken the spirit of the Rod, Jou in tow with Yugi only five minutes behind with Malik and Seto. Eventually the whole gang was there, awaiting for any information the doctors and nurses cared to give them.

They had to operate. Marik's leg was shattered so the doctors had to piece it back together. But there was internal bleeding that they had to take care of first, and he was fading fast.

Unknown to them all, Marik's mind was elsewhere. At first he'd lain in darkness, doing nothing, feeling nothing. Then something lurched him in one direction, and he felt himself falling. Upon impact, he jolted upright, or what he thought was upright, and practically panted like he'd just run for his life from some terrifying creature. He hadn't, had he?

Marik heard a chuckle from nearby, and whipped his head around to see who it was a hwere it was coming from. His gaze came to rest on a tanned young woman with wild white hair and a scar across the bridge of her nose. She looked startlingly familiar to him, even moreso when she grinned at him. "So nice of you to join us, Marik?" She said to him.

"How do you know my name?" He growled, not trusting this woman even though he gut told him it was ok.

"I know a lot of things about you, Marikky." She said, raising her hands to rest behind her head against the wall that he hadn't noticed was there.

She didn't offer anymore information as to what she knew or how she knew it, so Marik took the silence to survery his surroundings. He was in a room made of white alabastor. It reminded him of the Pharaoh's palace back in Egypt, but even more... holy, if that was the correct word.

Another chuckle disrupted his thoughts. This one was deeper and clearly a man. The spikey blonde turned to find another person who looked strangely familiar, with brown hair and blue eyes. "You need to come with us, we haven't got much time." He said, walking over and pulling him to his feet, "You're not supposed to be here. You're not dead yet."

"Dead? What the fuck are you on about?" Marik demanded, but instead of being answered he was pulled down a corridor that had appeared from nowhere by the man, following the white haired woman.

He was taken to what looked like a courtyard, only the sky was a mix of purple and black, not unlike the Shadow Realm. But it couldn't be. Everything was too light to be that place. In the middle was what appeared to be a pool, with people sitting around it. One, a woman, looked up at their arrival, and Marik almost fell to his knees in shock.

"Mama?!" He cried, instantly recognising her spikey blonde hair and fierce violet eyes, so like his. She ran to him, and him to her, pulling him into a tight embrace. Tears gathered in his eyes and tumbled down his cheeks.

"Sssh, darling." She cooed while stroking his hair softly. "You're not supposed to be here."

"So I've been told." Marik said to her, pulling back to wipe his eyes roughly. "But where is here? What's going on?"

"Well you were hit by some idiot woman on her cell phone." Another woman by the pool told him. "She did a pretty nasty job of teaching you how to fly when she hit your bike. You're currently on the operating table in Domino Central Hospital."

Marik was gently tugged over to the pool by his mother, and instead of looking into the water like the others were, he looked at them, and tried to figure out why they looked so familiar.

Another white haired woman, this one nearly as pale as snow, looked up at him as if hearing his unspoken question. "Can't you guess?" She asked with a gentle smile, which once again reminded him of someone.

Then it clicked.

"You're all their parents, aren't you?" Marik gasped.

They all looked up at him and smiled in a rather mysterious way. Now he could see it clearly. The tanned woman from before must have been Bakura's mother. The hair gave it away, as well as the cocky grin. The blue-eyed man must have been Seto's father, because they looked so very similar, from the hair to the eyes to the tall physique. The other white haired woman was obviously Ryou's mother. Her gentle smile and kind eyes had given that away and of course the pale hair and skin with a factor too.

He looked at the others around the pool. A woman with green eyes was clearly Otogi's mother, and the one in a regal gown and tri--coloured hair was so obviously the former Queen of Egypt and Yami's. A man with similar hair sat next to her, Yugi's father, and next to him someone so similar to his own hikari, yet with striking gold eyes instead of lavender, but with the same subtle rage and strength.

"I'll ask again, what's going on?" Marik questioned, turning to look into the pool at last. He saw himself on the operating table of a hospital, surrounded by people in scrubs and masks. He flinched away. He wouldn't admit it but doctors scared him.

"You're kinda stuck between life and death at the moment." Malik's mother explained. "You're not supposed to die right now, but it seems you're struggling to stay alive too."

"Mortals are so fragile." Yami's mother commented. Marik tried to remember her name from the old days, and he was pretty sure it was Nepthys.

"You were mortal one, Queenie." Bakura's mother, who he could remember was called Kismet, retorted, whapping the woman on the back of the head and knocking her tiara off.

"Back to the subject at hand, before you start a fight." Ryou's mother intervened.

"Yes, please, don't argue." Yugi's father almost pleaded.

"What did you mean when we said I haven't got much time?" Marik asked, looking to his mother.

"We don't know when you'll be woken up, and we wanted to speak with you. I wanted to see you." She smiled at him, embracing him once more. "I hope I don't get another chance of this until you truely do die, so right now I just want to tell you how proud I am of you."

"I tried to destroy the world." Marik looked at her, "How can you be proud of that?"

"Because we can't really blame you for being fucked in the head when you were released only to bear my son's hatred and rage towards that bastard of a husband of mine." Malik's mother, Nefertiri, assured him. "I thank you for taking that burden for him."

"Basically we wanted you here to thank you for what you've done." Kismet came over to him. "You, and our children, may not realise it, but you've done more than you think. You took Malik's hatred as your own, you helped my son survive in Egypt and you're still with him now, you help Takashi's son with his company. You've done so much that you don't get credit for."

Marik didn't know what to think, when suddenly he felt really dizzy. He fell to his knees with his mother's arms around him. "What's going on?"

"Ooh, he's wanted back now." Takashi said, looking over at the pool.

The spikey blonde felt like his head was going to explode. "My head hurts." He whined childishly, and slumped against his mother, who was happy to stroke his hair to soothe him.

"Don't worry, son, you'll be fine. Take care of Bakura, and your friends, and know that I'm watching over you." She whispered softly.

"Hey, Marik." Yugi's father called to him, kneeling in front of him. "Tell Yugi I'm proud of him, of all of you. We all are."

"I will." Marik promised, his eyes drifiting closed. He felt very light-headed. "I love you, mama."

"I love you too., kiddo." His mother smiled at him.

Her voice faded away into the darkness, and was replaced by gentle singing. He was no longer in the arms of his mother but in a bed, with a needle in his arm and a mask over his mouth. His entire body felt sore. He couldn't be bothered opening his eyes with how exhausted he felt, so he just listened to the singing, and instantly knew it was Bakura, soothing him with the same song he sang in their past.

Entually, however, Marik felt he had to open his eyes, to at least let his partner know he was ok. Everything was blurry at first, and far too bright. He turned his head towards the source of the singing, and before his vision cleared he felt a hand on his forehead, brushing back his bangs.

"Marik?" He heard Bakura ask, and he smiled weakly.

"Hey...'Kura." Marik croaked, finally being able to see his dishelved and sleepy looking friend and lover.

Bakura tapped his nose, probably trying to refrain from smacking him. "You had me really worried, you dolt." He grumbled, sounding more relieved than angry. "We're sending that woman to the shadows when you get out of here."

"You mean you haven't done it already?" Marik nearly whispered. His throat was still too sore to speak very loudly.

"I was too worried about you to bother with her." The thief admitted, still stroking Marik's hair, the way his mother had before.

Marik sighed and closed his eyes, revelling in the feeling. "Would you believe me if you say I saw everyone's parents?" He asked, cracking open his eyes to look at the other.

"Probably." Bakura replied, sitting down on the edge of the hospital bed. "What did they say?"

"They're proud of us." Marik murmured, closing his eyes again. "Remind me to ask the other's what their parents were called."

Bakura smiled softly. "Ok then. Now get some sleep. You look like hell." He kept on petting Marik's hair until he was sure the other was asleep, before kissing him gently and leaving the room to inform the others waiting outside.

"How is he?" Ryou asked worriedly.

"He's fine. Battered, sore and tired, but fine." Bakura assured him. "He said he saw something when he was out."

"What?" Yugi cocked his head curiously.

"He told me he saw our parents." Bakura grinned at their confused reactions. "You'll have to ask him youselves exactly what he saw. but he told me that they say they're proud of us."

"What the fuck?" Malik said disbelievingly, "Are you sure? He's so insane he was probably just seeing things."

"Maybe, maybe not." Bakura said, smiling tiredly.

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R+R, there's cookies in it for you


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